by Greg Thompson, Stallionesearch.com

ARLINGTON, TX—FEBRUARY 2, 2016—After four-decades in the saddle All American Futurity and Derby winning jockey Alex Baldillez, Jr. announced his retirement to Stallionesearch.com this week. The 57-year old Texas native has had an illustrious career that began in 1975 at Ross Downs near Colleyville, Texas.

Alex, the oldest brother of three leading Quarter Horse jockeys, won the 1987 All American Futurity aboard Dr. Lindsay Burbank's Elans Special. Trainer John Buchanan gave him the mount. His brother Roy made history when he pulled off a win in the 2011 All American Futurity aboard Ochoa, to make them the only two brothers in history to have won the Labor Day classic.

With1,595 victories and career earnings of $17,701,636, Baldillez has certainly had a Hall of Fame level career.

Baldillez, who has been on horseback since he was 5-year-old, said the decision to end his riding career was not easy. The ultimate decision to retire came following a discussion with his children.

“My three children approached me at Christmas time, and collectively told me the same thing,” said Baldillez. “Even though they are my biggest fans, they asked me what else do I have left to prove? I've been riding for 40-years and for the most part I am still intact and able to move around a bit.

Baldillez continued, "They asked that I really consider retiring while I am still able to have a post-racing career life that isn’t confined to a wheelchair."

From Humble Beginning

Born essentially on the King Ranch in Kingsville, Texas, Baldillez was the son of a race rider in his own right. His father, Alex Baldillez, Sr. had left home as a 12-year-old and found his way to the King Ranch. Baldillez explains that it was the “old-timers” that worked the King Ranch that took his father under their wing and made a horseman out of him. Alex Baldillez, Sr. would make a run at a race riding career by riding thoroughbreds at the track up north in New Jersey and New York, before moving back to the South to train horses.

“My father was pretty rough on me with his desire to make me a race rider,” Baldillez said. “I was only six-years-old when my father broke me out of the gates on a horse for the first time. I remember falling off and my father simply caught the horse and reloaded him in the gate. He told me ‘this time don’t fall off’ when he re-broke me out of the gate.”

“I had asked my father as I was an adult if he was ever worried that he was going to kill me with all the things he was trying to teach me through his stern riding lessons,” Baldillez continued. “He simply said that he was set on making a race rider out of me. The lessons were hard, but it certainly made me a better rider.”

Racing Career

From 12 to 14-year-old, Baldillez began competitively racing on the match race circuit. At 15, his father took him to Ross Downs and told track officials he was sixteen so he could obtain his jockey license. Baldillez rode his first race at Ross Downs as a professional in 1975.

He continued to ride at Ross Downs, but was also doing other things outside of racing to make a living at the time.

“In the winter of 1977, I was working with a roofer in my hometown, but there was just a shortage of work. I went home one night, packed my clothes in a bag, and told my little brother Roy that I would call my parents once I arrived wherever I was going. The weather was bad in the direction I wanted to go, so I just made my way to Dallas to Ross Downs to take my chances on riding full-time. At the end of 1978, I was the leading rider at Ross Downs by at least 40-wins, and I was ready to make my way to Ruidoso.”

The first year Baldillez moved his tack to Ruidoso Downs was a plentiful year for the young-rider. Riding both Thoroughbreds, and Quarter Horses, Baldillez rode in the Rainbow Futurity(G1) in his very first summer on the mountain. He excelled at riding both breeds, and had potentially let a golden opportunity slip through his hands to become a major thoroughbred rider.

During one of the early years he led the Thoroughbred rider standings and was approached by the same jockey's agent that had taken Mike Smith and Patrick Valenzuela from New Mexico to the big-time of Thoroughbred racing.

“My wife at the time was pregnant with my oldest daughter, so I told the agent that I would have to wait," Baldillez said. "Time went on, I stayed the leading rider in the standings, and therefore I never left to go the path that Smith and ‘P.Val’ took."

"If I look back on my career with any regrets, I would have to say not testing the waters at the bigger Thoroughbred tracks at that time would be the biggest regret I have,” he said.

Baldillez refers to an accident in 1981 with an exploding carburetor on a car that left him hospitalized for 43 days, as a point in his life that led to the defining big break in his career. While in the hospital burn unit, a doctor told him he would never ride again. He credits a hardened nurses’ persistence with therapy that allowed his return to the saddle within six months.

“Before I had the accident, I had qualified with the fastest qualifier in the Kansas Futurity(G1) that year,” said Baldillez. “With the injury, I was unable to ride it back in the finals. When I came back from being burnt, it seemed as if nobody would ride me on anything. I walked around the backside hoping for something to change, and that was when I was approached by Dwayne “Sleepy” Gilbreath to ride a horse," he continued.

"He put me on a horse, and the horse won. Shortly thereafter, he asked me to come with him that winter to break babies. It was right around 1983 when "Sleepy" hooked up with the Phillips Ranch."

Baldillez went on to say, "Those years with Sleepy and the Phillips Ranch horses are what I would refer to as ‘big-years’. We were really rolling during that period of time, including a win in the 1986 All American Derby(G1) aboard Six Popper.”

The All American Futurity Win

In 1987, Baldillez suffered a badly broken ankle that saw him sidelined for five-and-a-half months. The ankle took such an extended period to heal that the jockey told Gilbreath that he would not be able to ride in the Kansas Futurity(G1) that summer.

“At the time I didn’t feel my ankle was healed enough for me to ride in the ’87 Kansas Futurity(G1) for Sleepy,” Baldillez said. “My friend, trainer John Buchanan, asked me to work a really nice filly that he had in his barn. I also told John that I didn’t feel I was healed enough to race ride, but I agreed to work the filly. It was Elans Special that I worked that day, and she was scary fast in the work.”

Elans Special, from the first crop Ruidoso Triple Crown winner Special Effort, would qualify with the fastest time in the 1987 Kansas Futurity(G1) trials, but would slip in the finals. She came back to run the second fastest qualifying time in the trials for the 1987 Rainbow Futurity(G1), but finished third in the finals after acting fractious in the gate prior to the start of the race.

The sorrel filly qualified third in the All American Futurity trials before making her victorious dash down the Ruidoso stretch to win the Labor Day classic with Baldillez aboard for his largest career win for his career.

Post-Racing Life

After four decades of riding, the switch to life away from the saddle will hopefully involve something in racing, according to the winner of 12 Grade 1 races.

“What I would like to do after my riding career is remain in racing,” said Baldillez. “I rode for so many great trainers over the years, and I learned as much as I could from each one of them. I would like to see if I couldn’t get on as an assistant trainer with a top-level trainer with the thought of eventually going out on my own," he says.

"Racing has been good to my family, and me and it is all I have ever known. I would love to stay in the game in some capacity if I could, ” he added.

Baldillez hopes a career move to race training can be as fruitful as the one that allowed his association with such Grade 1 horses as Elans Special, Six Popper, DMNV Mountable, Signed To Fly, Jess Genuine, Flow Of Cash, Time For Royal Cash, The Specializer, Wicked Winner, Prairie Hope, Bugged Thoughts, Sound Dash, Takin On The Cash, and Imafastermaster, to name a few.